Emerald and Gold
by Mikerfur
Summary: It has been seven years since Beary had gotten the band back togehter, now as Beary heads off to college, he remembers growing up with the bears and his human family while also trying to survive his roomates. Meanwhile two old enemies put their long-awaited plan of revenge into action against the tightnit family of bears and humans.
1. Introduction

Alright Everyone, here is my first Country Bears fanfiction, Emerald and Gold. So please leave me a review, as they can help me improve the story and grow as a writer.

Please know that I do not own the Country Bears, by I do own Zacariah Smith, Drake Holland, James McVicker, Trevin Bilbrey, Martha Taylor and any one you don't recognize from the film.

Here are the current ages of all the characters so far.

Beary Barrington: 18-1/2

Henry Taylor: 62

Fred Bedderhead: 47

Ted Bedderhead: 49

Zeb Zoober: 49-1/2

Tennesee O'Neil: 47-1/2

Trixie St. Claire: 48

James McVicker: 19

Martha Taylor: 60

Trevin Bilbrey: 18-1/2

Reed Thimple: 65

Zacariah Smith: 50

Drake Holland: 23


	2. Chapter 1

March 15, 2010

Rain splattered in sheets in the balmy spring night, the street lamps gave off a yellow glow through the old windows of the same warehouse where several years ago the _Country Bears_ had been held captive. Inside of the old office of the now abandoned building a single lamp illuminated the table where Reed Thimple, older and hair graying, tapped his fingers against the table surface while staring irritably at the newspaper that concealed whoever it was sitting opposite of Thimple. The only thing breaking the tense silence was the pouring of the rain and the tapping of Thimple's fingers against the table.

"Did ya call Holland?" A deep voice with a southern drawl said from behind the newspaper with a hint of a growl.

"Yeah, I did," Reed Thimple said in response.

"And?" The voice asked, getting a little more agitated, "did he find the documents in the old files?"

On the outside of the newspaper facing Thimple a large picture adorned the page, a picture of the _Country Bears_ posed all together in front of their bus during their Summer Celebration Tour last year while in Indianapolis. The band's youngest member, Beary Barrington, the then seventeen year old cub stood in the middle of the group wearing a black hoodie and khaki short. Next to him was a much older bear, the manager Henry Taylor was wearing his typical green velvet vest and his infamous necktie with a brown hat. It was apparent that the elderly bear was exhausted as dark circles could be seen even in the picture, but he was smiling warmly with a paw on Beary's shoulder and Beary having a paw on his back and both bears were smiling at the camera as well as the others in the band.

Above everyone in the picture's head was a number written in pen on the picture. Above Henry's head was the number 1, above Ted Bedderhead was the number 2, Zeb Zoober had a 3 above his, above Ted's brother Fred was the number 4, above Tennessee O'Neil's head was a 5 and above Trixie O'Neil's head was a 6 while the word _last _was written over the seventeen year-old's head.

The paper was lowered and a bear with auburn fur with grey along his muzzle was revealed. He had cold blue eyes and wore a white dress shirt and a black suit jacket but no pants. His glasses surrounded his uncaring eyes that stared at Thimple across the table.

"Be patient," the bear said coldly and calmly while noticing Thimple's impatience and irritation, "if it wasn't for me, you would probably still be rotting in prison for attempted kidnapping and tax evasion." The bear said while folding the paper and putting it to the side.

After the _Bears _had gotten back together, Thimple was arrested after the bears pressed charges on him, but shortly before his trial the bear named Zacariah who was currently sitting across from him saw what he called "potential" in Thimple and hired very expensive and good lawyers to fight his case for him and got him only sentenced to one year in prison. But Thimple had grown impatient for Zacariah's plan to come into action.

"It's been SEVEN YEARS!" Thimple shouted while slamming his fist into the table and standing up in anger. The bear, Zacariah, didn't respond to Thimple's outburst but instead turned his head to another voice seemingly coming out of nowhere.

"Don't shoot," said the long haired Rip Holland holding his hands up sarcastically. Walking next to him in a business suit was essentially a much younger version of Rip: tall, lanky and red hair though his was done with a short business cut.

"Holland," Zacariah said getting up, "I take it that this is your grand-kid? Can he be trusted?"

"Yeah, he can be trusted." Rip said arrogantly, "As long as we keep our cut."

"Don't be stupid," Zacariah said "you both can bicker and bitch over the money, I'm doing this for what those _Bears _stole from me all those years ago," Zacariah said walking up to the twenty-three year old and scanned him up and down, towering over the younger human. He looked for any sign of weakness through his glasses. With a curt nod and a mumbling of "he'll do," after that he walked to the other side of the office to a table with several surgical instruments on it along with a bottle of chloroform and tranquilizer darts.

"The old man is first," Zacariah said bluntly, "what I need _you two_," Zacariah said turning around and pointing at Thimple and Rip, "is for you two to finalize a…partnership and start getting under Taylor's skin for the entitlements due to the copyright, thank God Taylor hasn't realized that the copyright still belongs to Holland, otherwise this would be over before it started." Zacariah said, "Kid, do you know your role?"

"Yes," Drake Holland said stepping forward, "I act like a 'salesman' and figure out if the _Bears _have any sort of daily schedule, and see when the old man is likely to be alone."

Zacariah nodded as an insane grin spread across his muzzle at the idea of finally getting his payback against the Bears, Taylor in particular.

"I cant wait to get started," Thimple said excitedly.

"Neither can I," Zacariah said while holding a bottle of chloroform, "and trust me, for those damned _Bears_, it's going to be a painful separation."


	3. Chapter 2

It was a warm afternoon in Franklin, Tennessee as the red Barrington family van parked outside of the Barrington residence. Inside was the now eighteen and a half-year old Beary Barrington stepped out of the van slinging his back pack over his shoulder containing his High School textbooks and homework. Beary was now in his Senior Year of High School, and as a result had changed a little since he was eleven. He was noticeably taller, his fur a little thicker as a result of incoming adulthood, his eyes still had the warm green glow in them and he wore a pair of worn jeans and a thin hoodie that avoided his fur coat turning into a makeshift sauna. As he got out of the van and made his way up to the house, he noticed the tan convertible also parked in the driveway.

"Henry's here," Beary said in his mature voice with a pleasant tone at the thought of seeing his god-father again. Beary neared the door and opened it hearing his adoptive mothers voice emanating from the room to the right of the large staircase that the first hall when Beary walked into the door. As Beary walked over into the kitchen he saw the grey the bear Henry Taylor sitting across from his mother with a bear sized mug of coffee in his paws. His fur has greyed completely, and the mustache on his muzzle was now purely white and longer. Wearing his typical green vest, Henry turned to look at Beary. His brown eyes kept their familiar glint as they scanned Beary as he smiled warmly at Beary, "hey kiddo" Henry said happily.

"How's it going Henry?" Beary said warmly sitting next to the elder bear.

Ever since Beary and Henry had went on what Dex had nicknamed their "road trip" Beary had grown rather close to the elderly bear as the years went on. Who acted as another father to the now nearly full grown bear cub that had arrived at Country Bear Hall nearly seven years ago. And it was when Beary had reached the age of thirteen that Mr. and Mrs. Barrington agreed with Beary and he asked the elder bear to be his official godfather, which he happily accepted, and Henry's wife Martha his godmother who also agreed. And since then Beary had Henry as both his manager, his godfather and his mentor. Beary could still remember Tennessee crying when it was announced to the other members of the band.

"I take it you're still coming to practice tomorrow?" Henry asked before taking a sip of coffee.

"Of course," Beary said, "I take it Ted is still pretty irate about last week?"

"Yeah," Henry said chuckling, "he doesn't seem to get that you're trying to get into college." Henry said chuckling.

Henry knew that Beary had been working extremely hard to get into college during his high school years, after being in the band and being around Henry growing up through his adolescence, Beary decided that he would look at a career in Musical Therapy, where he could help people cope with their problems via music and to do that he needed a degree in music and in therapy and as a result his schedule has been restricted even though he still made time to practice and play in shows and tours with the band. It was at that point that his adoptive mother, Tonya stepped into the conversation holding an envelope and looking slightly nervous, and a look at the logo and the latin saying on the envelope described it right away. It was the University of Nashville, and it seemed like they were now responding to his application. Beary's ears folded back slightly at seeing the envelope, and despite both his adoptive and godparent's assurances, Beary began instantly feeling nervous.

Henry kept quiet while Tonya handed Beary the envelope and watched his godson closely, "here sweetie" she said softly and slightly shaking. Remaining quiet, Beary slowly opened the envelope, dreading what was inside as Henry put a reassuring paw on his shoulder and Tonya put her hand on his other shoulder. He pulled out the letter concealed in the envelope.

Dear Mr. Barrington

After reviewing your credentials with your High School

And reviewing your SAT scores, we are pleased to announce

your acceptance to the University of Nashville, enclosed with

this letter is the appropriate forms for you and your

parent/guardian to fill out regarding financial aid, course registration and housing.

Congratulations, Admissions

Beary read the letter out loud and suddenly was set upon by Tonya, who in a fit of happy tears hugged and kissed her adoptive son, Henry simply patted Beary on the back. "Congratulations son," Henry said getting up from his seat and stretching causing his back to audibly crack.

"Well, I better get going," Henry said.

"Ok Henry, I'll see you on Friday?" Beary said, now with much more enthusiasm and relaxation in his voice than Henry had heard from his godson in quite some time.

"Probably sooner," Henry said grabbing his cane from the table, "once I tell the boys the good news, they're gonna want to do something. Not to mention Martha's gonna want to make a big dinner for it." Henry said chuckling. As Henry made his way toward the door, Beary accompanied his godfather, making small talk along the way. "See you around Tonya." Henry called out behind him.

"See you Henry." Tonya cried back from the kitchen, still with tears of happiness in her eyes as she began to call her husband Richard about the news.

Once out on the porch of the Barrington home, Beary gently helped Henry go down the steps onto the sidewalk. "Sometimes I really can't tell if your mother is upset or happy." Henry said as they made their way to his car.

"You can usually tell," Beary said light-heartedly, "I have trouble sometimes too, so don't feel bad." They both reached Henry's car and stopped in front of it.

It was then that Henry looked right into Beary's eyes, "I'm proud of you Beary, I really am." Henry said sincerely.

Beary looked into Henry's brown eyes, "thank you Henry, for everything." Beary said to his mentor before they hugged each other, even though Henry felt proud and happy beyond belief for Beary he still felt a pang deep down as they both separated.

"Just be ready to be harassed by the boys very soon." Henry said lightly opening the door and sitting down in the drivers seat, "We'll have a nice get together to celebrate, and you should probably bring a huge pack of klenxes for Tennessee."

"You don't have to do that Henry." Beary said humbly, not wanting Henry to go through any trouble at his expense.

"I know, but I want to, and I don't think Martha is going to give either of us much of a choice, she loves cooking as much as your mother." Henry chuckled starting the car Beary laughed quietly too.

"See you on Friday kiddo." Henry said from the window of his car.

"See you then Henry." Beary said waving Henry goodbye as he carefully backed out and drove away from the driveway. Beary watched Henry drive down the street before turning around and going back inside


	4. Chapter 3

The cream colored convertible drove past the wooden sign that read "Country Bear Hall" while pointing straight down the path the car was driving. Henry Taylor, at the driver's seat, crossed the old covered wooden bridge that allowed him to go over the running creek that led to a large lake that laid adjacent to a large golden oak structure known as Country Bear Hall, the musical venue of the Country Bears and part of Henry's home. Though he owned the _hall_, it was not where he laid his head: his home laid across the meadow to the left side of the _Hall _if one were to face the front of the structure, it was a two-story house with white siding, a set of concrete steps led up to the front door that was surrounded by a covered porch with large wooden swing and several chairs. Outside there was a small wooden barn which was a place where Henry worked in his car if he needed to or on Big Al's tractor-like mower from time to time, the barn also was adjacent to Henry's gravel driveway.

Inside of the home, the door immediately opened to a cozy living room with wooden floors like most of the house, a couch, TV, an armchair and a window that looked directly at the _Hall _that was next to the TV and opposite the couch. Next to the living room was a room that acted as a sitting room, with a fireplace on one side of the room with two rocking chairs and a love seat. Above the fireplace hung old black and white photos of bears that belonged to the Taylor family, including one dating back to the 1800s with a line of bears standing in front of a cabin holding rifles and next to those pictures were pictures of the Country Bears on and off stage and a few showing Henry with Beary. In the sitting room there was a doorway that led to the kitchen, which had all of the essentials, a table in the middle with non-matching and well used chairs, red carpet and a glass paned door that served as the back door and a window above the old sink looking at the large meadows that stretched for acres.

Inside the kitchen a graying, brown furred she-bear was standing in front of the stove. She looked through the pair of glasses on her muzzle at the pot billowing steam, she wore a red blouse with a pair of blue jeans. Martha Sue Taylor heard the front door creak open and close and upon turning around saw her husband of thirty years entering their home, Henry walked across the house and towards her, every now and then the sound of his cane hitting the floor could be heard. She turned her back as Henry came up behind his wife and wrapped his arms around her shoulders and nuzzling her neck as she smiled contentedly.

"What's for dinner sweet pea?" Henry said resting his chin on Martha's shoulder and looking into the pot.

"Beef Stew, Hen." Martha said kissing her husband back.

"Smells good," Henry said gently trying to take the spoon from Martha's paw and taste the stew, but met resistance from Martha.

"Nuh-uh," she said jockingly, "you can wait for dinner." Martha said laughing kindly.

After embracing for a while, Henry and Martha separated and Henry sat himself down at the kitchen table after pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"I take it you visited Beary?" Martha said as she sat down at the table across from Henry.

"Mhm." Henry replied with the mug still against his muzzle, "he also got a reply from the college he's been trying to get into."

"Oh?" Martha said interested and concerned, she had always seen Beary as a son and often acted as a second mother to him and grey increasingly concerned about the amount of stress her god-son was going through.

"He got accepted." Henry said wanting to see how Martha would react.

"Oh that's wonderful!" Martha said excitedly, "you need to call the others and let them know, on Friday we'll have a dinner party for it."

"After practice though." Henry reminded her as he got up to get the phone to call the rest of the _Bears_, "We still have a tour coming up."

On Friday Evening

Beary, driving the red van, pulled up outside of the _Hall _for practice that night, and would also probably stay the night with Henry if it went too late into the night. The sen was a dark orange as it was descending below the horizon line and crickets could already be heard and the lights in the hall made a very faint glow into the twilight, with the golden color of the wood from the hall practically reflecting the dim sun. Beary jumped out of the van and stretched before grabbing his guitar that he had ever since getting the band back together, he opened one of the large wooden doors and began to walk into the Hall and-

"SURPRISE!" He heard several voices yelling, which made him jump out of his fur. Upon looking he could see all the members of the band, Fred, Ted, Tennessee, Zeb, Trixie, Henry and Martha all of a sudden giving him pats on the back and hugs and had a feeling about what this was about. He got a high five from Zeb, who had some grey appearing in his auburn fur, a handshake from Ted, whose fur was also starting to turn lighter around his muzzle, A hug from Trixie and Tennessee who honestly barely looked any different than when Beary had first met them seven years ago, A kiss from Martha and another hug from Henry with Henry saying "you did it son" in his ear. Smiling as wide as he could he said thanks to all of the members, and also trying to ask the wave of questions being flung his way by everyone about where he was going, if he had roommates yet and so on.

All of the Bears had gotten together to celebrate Beary being accepted into college, and before long they were all happily eating finger foods that Martha made, Zeb telling jokes as usual, Tennessee getting emotional as usual with Trixie sometimes snapping him out of it, the Hall was filled with chatting and laughter that lasted for hours. With everything settling down, everyone was sitting on the benches where the audience sits and everyone continued talking and just essentially hanging out together and everyone essentially forgot entirely about practicing for the upcoming Summer Celebration tour. Beary was talking to Zeb.

"So when you goin' Beary?" Zeb asked while still wearing his trademark vest and large hat.

"August 16," Beary said excitedly, and saw for a brief instant a flash of sadness in Zeb's brown eyes at the thought of Beary leaving, "don't feel bad Zeb," Beary said putting a paw on the older bears shoulder, "I'll still be in the band, and there's still the summers." Beary said reassuringly, which cheered Zeb up quite a bit.

Hours after the night had arrived, everyone began to say their goodbyes and leave for the night, Tennessee and Trixie left together as they now lived together in Nashville, Ted and Fred left separately, Zeb went back to his cabin on the grounds, which he had built himself with the help of the others and Henry, Beary and Martha all went back inside Henry's house and settled down in the sitting room with the fireplace while Henry, now wearing reading glasses as he looked over the schedule for the tour and other official documents while he had his legs propped up and sank into his favorite squishy armchair, Beary sat on the love-seat and was reading through some of the documents he needed to fill before heading off for college.

While Beary filled out the document while laying back on the loveseat, he thought back to one of the first nights he spent on the bus.

_The bus rolled down the road as Zeb laid back talking with Beary and Fred, all of them noticed that Henry started to nod every now and then with the rocking of the bus acting like a giant cradle for the elder bear, but continued to try and read the map, he had been awake for a lot longer than usual and as a result his eyelids started to get heavy and his knees began to ache. Beary noticed Henry started to get a little irritable with tiredness. It was then that he heard Zeb whisper into his ear, "hey, wanna see what we always used to do whenever Henry got cranky?" Beary smiled and nodded while Zeb nodded with a smirk and Fred picked up his harmonica and Zeb his fiddle and started to play a soft tune together, before long roadie, catching onto what the other two were doing driving the bus began to hit his drumstick on the steering wheel smiling while Mr. Chicken clucked every now and then. Within seconds Henry, somewhat nodding to the music, slowly closed his eyes and he nodded less and less and laid back slowly until the elder bear began to snore loudly as Henry fell fast asleep. Beary put a blanket over the band manager as Henry slowly collapsed into the pile of cushions and Fred and Zeb kept playing until arms went limp with sleep and the map fell off of his lap. "That's what we called 'Henry's lullabye'" Zeb giggled to Beary in a quiet tone._

Beary looked at his godfather as he showed the similar signs of passing out in his armchair, which made Beary smile remembering Henry's lullabye. As Henry started to nod off Martha came around and patted her husband on the shoulder, "Come on Henry," she said warmly, "it's time for bed."

Henry slowly got up grumbling, with the help of his cane, and all three inhabitants of the house went to bed for the night.

Later that night

_The sounds of shouting and men shrieking in agony surrounded him and he heard the bullets wizzing past him and saw his friends being gunned down. He felt the heat of napalm blasting through the jungle as he ran from fox hole to fox hole, he fired his rifle at the shadows in the thick jungle that he could barely see, and then he felt something knock him down as a bullet hit him in the arm, as he fell down facing the sky darkening with smoke he saw a helicopter spinning out of control with it's propeller on fire as he heard yelling in another language he didn't understand. With a strike of horror he heard his name and turned and saw Beary being beaten savagely with the butt of a rifle, he tried to get up to protect his godson but all of a sudden a foot stomped on his chest and he raised his paws in the air covered in blood and shaking as he saw a shadow figure holding a rifle with a bayonet attached to it and yelling for Beary with tears in his eyes as the person beating Beary turned their rifle and shot him in the chest at point blank range, he looked up as the blade was then thrust into his chest and pierced through his skin and fur and feeling the blood spilling out of his wound…_

Henry woke up… screaming at the top of his lungs and sitting straight upright in his bed, gasping for air and looking around him at the quiet dark bedroom, he was sweating bullets and gasping still, his heart pounding and a paw on the area of his chest where he thought he just got stabbed under his night shirt. Henry felt stirring to his side and jumped when paws softly touched his shoulders, but settled down when he realized that it was Martha, and he was home…in his bed…and not in Vietnam.

"Shhh baby." Martha whispered softly as she held her husband as he calmed down, he didn't realize that he was shaking and Martha was holding Henry's head in her paws and slowly stroked the fur on the top of his head. "It's okay…it's okay…everyone's okay." She whispered kissing him on the top of his head. A single tear fell down his cheek as his breath slowly got back to normal.

After a couple of minutes Henry got up and went to his bathroom, and looking at the door to the guest bedroom down the hall where Beary was sleeping and it looked as if his nightmare didn't disturb him, breathing a slight sigh of relief he went to the bathroom sink and opened the medicine cabinet and grabbed a pill bottle and took two of the pills, a medication he took whenever he started having night terrors every now and then, it helped him sleep more deeply and without dreaming. Henry heard someone standing in the doorway and turned to see Martha before taking a drink of water to take the medication, he braced his paws on the sink and sighed while closing his brown eyes.

"Vietnam?" Martha asked as she tied the sash around her emerald robe, she knew Henry had nightmares…mostly about Vietnam but sometimes about losing loved ones. It didn't happen often but when it did it was about as bad as they could get.

"Yeah," Henry sighed putting away the pill bottle, "except this one had Beary in it."

Martha walked up and started rubbing Henry's shoulders, "You want some time alone?" she asked, knowing that sometimes Henry needed to be left alone to his thoughts.

"No." Henry quickly said putting his paw on Martha's, "Thank God I didn't wake up Beary though." Henry said as the medicine took affect, making him a little sleepy again and make him relax. "Sorry for waking you up Sweet-pea." Henry apologized.

"You never have to apaologize Henry, you know that." Martha said.

Henry thought to himself as they both made their way back to their bedroom and crawled back into bed, with Martha in his arms and taking sighs of breath, _"I could never ask for a better wife."_ Henry thought to himself as he succumbed to restful and dreamless sleep.


End file.
